the negative airport lexicon

Why do we hate airports? I've recently had this conversation with a few friends and thought it is worth a new blog post. I am a frequent air traveler for work and fun. Since my clients and family are about 18 hours away in Korea, I've got used to the idea of surrendering myself to what airports have to offer... but I still like to talk about it as I had rather difficult experience as a visa holder in the last 9 years of living in the states.

When I think of the word Airport, these are two events I think of immediately...

Jail night 2001: This one explains why I dislike airports pretty obviously. I've been put in an airport jail before I got kicked out of the country in 2001 for some stupid mistake I made with the travel documents. I got lock up in an airport cell with a Latin lady who was wearing a bright yellow pants suit, long curly hair and lots of makeup. She completed the look with yellow high heels. I wasn't sure why she was getting kicked out of the country since she didn't speak much English and me Spanish. During the 6-8 hour lock up until I was escorted out by a policeman who kept apologizing for the way I was treated (no water or food) I sat in the cell filled with minimum amount of stainless steel furniture; a toilet you can't flush from inside and a bench under bright florescent light. The yellow woman sitting down next to me, would not stop LAUGHING. I was pretty upset by the thought that I was not allowed to go back to my home / my boyfriend / my life in Savannah after 2 month of backpack trip. I felt that I have no control over the situation and felt anxious. Well it was not the time to be sad and teary anymore. This yellow lady was going to continue laughing and drive me insane. I made her teach me how to count in Spanish. UNO.. DOS.... I say that was the longest night in my life. What followed this event was even worse - but I rather keep this event to myself and close friends since it is somewhat embarrassing to blog.

Minority among the minority 2004: Again, I was backpack traveling in 2004 winter and returning to the country. I was nervous about coming back into the country with my OPT card (optional practical training) that you get after graduating a school in the states as a foreigner. Well, you never know what would stop you from coming back to the country. As I was flying in from Mexico, I was in a long line with most Mexicans in the Non-residential alien line. While American citizens go through their lines quickly with their proud passport or green card, I was waiting nervously in my line. Right on my turn, as I have this fake smile on my face to look nice waiting for the immigration officer to stamp my passport, the computer system for the entire airport went down. Since there are lots of Spanish speaking people go through the airport, there were Spanish airport guides helping them out about what to do. Me, pretty much the only Non-Hispanic, Non-American, No Idea. Three hours went by and I finally went through the line but missed my connecting flight. I stayed at a near by hotel in Houston. I say to myself "What am i doing in this country?"

Trips 2008: trips went beautifully & flawlessly since I finally got my green card. Well I have to mention though it was after I got stuck in Mexico City for a couple of weeks as the Green card came out while I was traveling outside the country for work. But I definitely prefer Sheraton jail to the airport one.

Here are my summary of reasons why airports get a bad rep for both citizens and aliens:

• To my friend's point, there are only the beginning and the end - no sense of the process. Time and space completely lost. Eurail trips would be the opposite example of this with beautiful scenery outside. I haven't tried Amtrack yet.
  
• Artificial space with artificial air like chain fast food joints - no characteristics. It is like a gigantic machine. Walmart tops this category though.
  
• Extreme example of public obedience - you open your bag, you stand in lines - obey no matter how many times they ask you. No naughty items. you will be judged. I was even sprayed with some unknown germ killer by a polite flight attendant on the way to Mexico from Sao Paolo in 2008.
  
• Clear class distinction - the rich gets treated like human being. The rest not much better than being in a chicken coop for 18 hours. How about the members only club? Being a Delta Medallion member makes me a "special citizen" yet not quiet the king and queen like people with more millage. I only have a limited access to the "crown lounge" with my current status. This becomes even more obvious during the holiday season when there are delays.
  

your online accounts after your death

What happens to your emails, facebook account, all the pictures you posted on the web...etc. after your death? I have over 6000 emails in my yahoo account. And since I hear that these days some parents would start their baby's facebook account from day 0 I can't imagine how much information the new generations would be storing in this cyber world. I guess after inactive use the account would close up automatically. You would have less chance of your personal memoirs being found out by your family or friends after you are gone. I am private person so I prefer that. I spent many my teenag years feeling paranoid by my mom reading through my diaries.

But it makes me sad in a way. The love letters that carry so much weight and meaning to one's life will simply disappear. No process of paper and ink decomposing and becoming a part of the earth. It just goes away. boom. Like it never existed.

What would be a smart solution for that?

thoughts on twitter, blogger, and facebook

I've done it all. I've joined my space, i love school, cyworld (these are Korean popular sites), facebook, twitter, and bogger. Not to mention other sites like flickr, myfamily for photos. But especially with Twitter, I have been amazed by how powerful it has been especially for the last presidential election as well as any kind of events - you will know about it through twitter first.

Twitter and facebook drive certain social behaviors...
Last night, I joined over 100 people meet up technology event and had interesting discussion about cyber identity over $7 Heineken in the city. My friend, xxxx (identity protected) a greenpeace worker first brought up how it is uncomfortable for her that she has hundreds of followers in twitter and facebook that she shares her daily thoughts with, regardless of the audience group. This actually happend to me inside and outside cyberworld. I don't necessarily let my coworkers know how I spent my saturday nights in details but I would with my close friends. I am selective about the kind of information that I share with my parents too. They probably don't want to know that I am traveling to Mexico city all by myself and staying at a drag queen hostel over christmas. (unfortunately they are pretty religious and anti gay. and yes I am a blacksheep) Even among friends, I have groups of people that I don't mix up. Facebook and twiitter naturally removed that categorizing behavior - and I'd water down my comments or avoid certain topics to make sure that I am not offending anybody.

This is a positive aspect of the selective identity.
When it comes to blogging, i had to carefully choose which role I am going to play. I've been writing about my experience being unemployed in the last couple of weeks because I feel that it'd be something I'd want to know if my friend is going through especially in this economy. But how would it affect my job searching journey...? Well I'll find it out soon.

So I chose the "unempoyed me" when my friend chose to blog about going through a surgery and getting stuck in bed for a week. She told me that how her friend she hasn't met for over 20 years wrote her about her own experienc getting stuck in bed over 8 weeks. Another example, I recently read through bunch of ladies' blog who were cheated by their spouses and how they are coping with the pain. The anonimosity allows people to open up and be connected in an unimaginable scale. Before blogging, if you have such event, you cope with it yourself.

Facebook and twitter has been a great tool for me to stay connected with friends and be notified about events, and also get the latest news professionally. BUT.
I realized that when I meet somebody in person and I want to actually get to know the person, I don't give them my email address because it would turn it into a cyber relationship. I give them my phone number. I call them. I've often noticed myself connecting with people on facebook and feeling that I did a homework. Putting them in my friend's list and getting their status updates every now and then means I know them? The relationship often dies there.

Unempoyment week4

So couple of weeks ago, I filed for unemployment and now I found out that one of the requirement is to register under labor exchange system to find a job. After searching for a labor department website in Brooklyn, I found a location 15 minutes subway ride from me in down town Brooklyn. First thing I noticed as I walked in this "workforce 1" center? Me being total minority out of minorities. It was mostly blacks, and some Hispanics. On top of that, me being the only person with I-pod and Mac Book (well and my $300 boots) in the waiting room stood out pretty nicely. It reminds me of my friend Josh's experience at a sleepy Waffle house somewhere deep south with his laptop checking his work emails. Well, anyways I got there around 11:30 am in a good spirit (I had a nice cup of Cappuccino in my polish neighborhood bakery) and found out that I have to wait for about an hour until they have an "orientation." I waited until the security guard told us to make a line - which was quiet long. And we were told they only take 40 people at a time. I was at my 33! Bunch of people had to go back home. Obviously there are more demands for the service that the supply here. Mayor Bloomburg extended office hours since last December.
So after sitting in the classroom for registration for about 4 hours here are things I learned from a serises of Powerpoint presentations (well of course I enjoyed Bad art on each slide)!

1. You make $9/hour as a tele marketer if you are bilingual - spanish/english (not korean / english i understand) and 7.25~7.50/hour just for english.

2. Telemerketer entry level position doesn't care about your criminal history

3. You gotta MARKET yourself to join the today's WORKFORCE

4. They also offer a GED classes along with basic computer skills, resume writing...etc.

5. no FUNNY email addresses or DJ style voice mail greeting if you wanna be taken seriously by companies like time warner (well as soon as I heard this comment I started brainstorming about how to make my voice mail greeting GROOVY :) )

6. Today's employers seek people with COMPUTER skills OMG

7. The offered areas of available position this week are... health care, security guard, cable technician, ah and something else I forgot

8. Of course you gotta be quick standing in a line

Finally, I have to say I am being a total smart ass about this public service and people who are trying to help me...but seriously, I have to say it was pretty tough to get through the program learning what opportunities lie there + having to explain what a design researcher does.

Unemployeed week 3

It is Trebuchet kind of day today. Chinese new year's day and sunny

I've started my week 3 of unemployment with calling my 401K account for roll over. And then reading a booklet about unemployment compensation and realizing how much work it actually is to file for a claim each week.

Even though I do not need to distinguish weekends from weekdays, I made a point of not working during the weekends to establish some sort of routines. I've honestly feared being unemployed for so long and I realized that what I feared was the "freedom." Now it is all in my hands to decide how to fill my days. I've never not belonged to a school or work except for a short period of time in between school and job. Now that it is all up to me until I land on to what is next, I have to proactively decide what I will do each week, each day and each hour. (well yeah it comes with the limitation of $$ of course) So I started a lot of things in the last 2 weeks of unemployment besides job searching. Things I've done are...

• shortening my pants that I've postponed in the last 2 years
• brushing my cats teeth which I've planned to do so in the last year or so but stopped at purchasing the kitty tooth brush and paste
• started a branding project for none profit organization - art activism organization called :the real estate industry
  
• listening to NPR religiously - today it is home depot's turn to lay off its employees
  
• actually posting blogs that my x coworker Dan told me to for years!
• meeting random people - it was incredible how easily I made friends when I say I don't work!
  

So far it is getting better. I still can't sleep at night but it is not from worries and stress but more from excitement and my restless mind for expectations.

Design for context - creative techniques

I found this luggage in Chelsea neighborhood the other day and had to take a picture of it. At first, I was thinking - who would leave a bag in the middle of street? Is there a bomb in there? Then I noticed a lock on the bag. Well new york people, you are so practical! It is not about what other people think. Somebody probably had to drag a lot of stuff and needed to go inside a store or something. What a good idea to treat it like a bike and lock it up on the street instead of dragging it around?

The other picture is showing a piece of fabric wrapped around the bumper of a nice car using a couple of paper clips. The car was parked in a nice Chelsea neighborhood. Well again, totally practical attitude.

You have to figure out ways to live in this gigantic city. I, after living in Ohio with a car for 5 years, realized that the way I do things need to change. Dragging groceries via subway is one of them. Naturally, I stopped buying things in bulk, and started making more frequent visits at grocery stores. This means I am constantly thinking about what I need to carry to my forth floor walk up apartment. To support this, in my Williamsburg neighborhood there are grocery stores on every block if not more. (literally!)

Well but if you want to shop for chaper and fresher goods, you have to go through a war. Around 5 pm, Whole Foods and Trader Joe near union square are filled with our warrior commuters buying their groceries and transferring them via Subway. Of course the bulky doubled paper bags get in the way in a crowded subways and annoy others. What does it mean? This is a great example of design which was done by people who does not know their customers. It reminds me of my walking stick prototype that I came up with in my industrial design studio class. I've never camped before back then. I did online research and called it a research. I went to a camping store and called it a compatitive market research. The scary thing is this kind of half ass research happens in a real world!